“What?”
Surprised, Yugeon asked back. But instead of answering, Migeon got up while turning his head away. Yugeon’s gaze followed his brother upward.
“Wh-where are you going?”
“…I’m going to try leaving a bit early today. Hyung, finish eating. When you’re done, just soak the dishes. I’ll clean up the rest when I get back.”
“Huh?”
Yugeon also awkwardly got up following his brother. Perhaps because he’d indicated his intention to leave the island, his brother looked hurt. While he hesitated, unable to do this or that, Migeon was already passing by Yugeon and going down from the wooden floor.
“Wait, Geon!”
Snapping to attention, Yugeon hurriedly followed his brother out. Perhaps because his stride was long, even though he wasn’t running, his large back was moving away with long steps. The place where Yugeon, who hastily caught up, finally grabbed his brother was in the middle of the yard.
“Geon!”
He grabbed his arm and called desperately, but Migeon, without looking back, pushed away Yugeon’s hand with a gentle touch.
“Go inside. I’ll be back.”
With a surge of emotion, Yugeon grabbed his brother’s arm with both hands and shouted.
“J-just one thing!”
“?”
Only then did his brother turn around to look at him.
“If you want me to stay on the island, promise me just one thing.”
Migeon, who had been standing at an angle, turned his body completely to face Yugeon.
“What… is it?”
“From now on, absolutely no suppositories!”
“……”
“Really, no. Promise me. If you try to put a suppository in me even one more time, I’ll swim off the island if I have to.”
Migeon, who had been staring at Yugeon with a dumbfounded face, slowly burst into laughter and nodded. His truly delighted face made him feel awkward for no reason.
“Then… be careful.”
“Okay. Oh, hyung. On the kitchen counter, there’s the new fever medicine and body ache medicine I bought. If your fever goes up again, make sure to take them.”
“What?”
“?”
“Fever medicine?”
“Yeah, I bought it yesterday along with the suppository.”
At his brother’s nonchalant words, Yugeon’s eyes, nose, and mouth all widened, then soon became miserably distorted.
“Hey!”
At the resonating shout, Migeon ran away laughing, and Yugeon raged alone.
After fuming alone in the yard, Yugeon went into the house and headed to the kitchen. Just as his brother said, there were three medicine boxes on the counter. One was fever medicine, one was body ache medicine. And the other one was…
“……”
Yugeon picked up that medicine too disgusting to even name and threw it in the trash, then picked up the fever medicine and body ache medicine. He’d definitely said he bought them new yesterday, but the packaging was already opened. Puzzled, when he took them out, one pill was missing from each.
“?”
Why is one pill missing from each? Did I take them? I don’t remember.
Yugeon made a suspicious face but soon thought nothing of it, put the medicine away and placed them on the counter, then began cleaning up the breakfast table.
His brother told him to just soak the dishes and he’d clean up, but given Yugeon’s personality, there was no way he could just leave it. He had a long history of living alone, and he had a personality that cleaned up messes right away.
After finishing the cleanup, Yugeon tidied the wooden floor and room, cleaned the bathroom, and even swept the yard. He’d been lying down for several days so he felt stiff, but it felt good to move his body. He didn’t have anything to do anyway.
After rummaging around here and there looking for things to do, when Yugeon had nothing more to do, he contemplated, then climbed the hill in the backyard and headed to the cliff. He was a bit reluctant since it was where he’d mistaken something for a tiger, but still, he wanted to sit on the cliff and look at the sea.
After killing time there, when he got hungry and checked the time, it was approaching 12 o’clock. Yugeon got up, stretched, and started walking.
“What should I have for lunch…”
As he came down the hill pondering and emerged into the yard, he ran into Lee Dongha coming up to the house.
“Yugeon hyung?”
Dongha’s eyes widened as he alternately looked at Yugeon and the backyard he’d come from, then hurried over.
“Are you okay now, hyung?”
“Yeah, I’m all better thanks to you.”
At Yugeon’s polite greeting, Dongha smiled with relief.
“That’s a relief.”
“Did you come for lunch?”
“Yeah, I came to eat with you, hyung. That bastard Geon should at least tell me if you got better.”
“He probably forgot because he was busy.”
“Forgot my ass. He probably didn’t tell me on purpose so I’d come take care of you.”
Dongha stuck out his lip and grumbled, and Yugeon laughed and patted his shoulder consolingly.
At that moment, somewhere on Imokdo, three villagers had gathered with serious faces. They were poking the ground with farming tools in their hands, and where they poked, it sank deeply as black water and a foul odor seeped out. Where they were standing was one of the few pieces of land where the people of Imokdo could grow crops.
The middle-aged man who had been poking the ground looked around and said in a hard voice.
“The rotten land has spread further.”
Just as the middle-aged man, Lee Eunhan, said, the surrounding land had already died and turned black, with foul odors and black water seeping out. The contamination had spread to land that had been fine. The crops that had been planted in the newly contaminated land were already dead and black.
At Lee Eunhan’s words, an elderly man nodded. Then he crouched down on the ground, pulled out crops that had died from the contamination, threw them away, and swallowed his anger.
“At this rate, there’ll be no land left to farm at all.”
The relatively young man who had been listening to the two complain looked around, then whispered quietly as if someone might hear.
“Could it be because he came back again?”
At the young man Lee Woongin’s words, the middle-aged man Lee Eunhan and the elderly Lee Yongseon exchanged glances, then averted their eyes as if afraid. Their mouths kept twitching as if they had something to say, but in the end they just kept their mouths firmly shut.
Then, a presence was felt not far away. The three people raised their heads and simultaneously frowned deeply. The person passing by was Lee Jaeyeong. Lee Jaeyeong also seemed to have spotted the three, flinching and stopping, then bowed his head deeply and quickened his pace.
Lee Eunhan looked at Lee Jaeyeong like that, spat on the ground with a ptooey, then growled.
“It must be because of that bastard. That bastard and his father.”
Lee Yongseon also clicked his tongue tsk tsk and shook his head, and Lee Woongin, with a face full of irritation, picked up a stone that was buried in the rotten land and rotting along with it.
Lee Dongha, who had lunch with Yugeon, was sitting on the edge of the wooden floor putting on his shoes to leave. Yugeon was standing beside him to see him off. As Dongha finished putting on his shoes and was getting up from the wooden floor, he spotted something beyond the windbreak.
“Huh?”
At Dongha’s reaction, Yugeon looked at Dongha, and Dongha frowned and muttered.
“Why is that ahjussi here…”
“?”
Yugeon looked beyond the windbreak following Dongha. Someone he didn’t know was standing in the middle of the yard.
“Who…?”
When Yugeon muttered puzzled, Dongha snapped to attention.
“He’s from the general store… He’s Jaeyeong’s dad… Look, hyung, don’t come out. I’ll escort him out.”
“Huh?”
Before even hearing Yugeon’s answer, Dongha headed to the yard almost running, and Yugeon also put on his shoes and followed Dongha out to the yard.
“Why did you come here, ahjussi?”
As soon as Dongha went out to the yard, he confronted Lee Sanghoe. Lee Sanghoe glanced at Dongha like that, then immediately shifted his gaze behind Dongha. Becoming anxious at Lee Sanghoe’s line of sight, when Dongha turned around, Yugeon who had come out to the yard was approaching.
“Hyung? Why did you come out?”
“Well… shouldn’t I at least greet him?”
“Greet him what…!”
“Why did you come back?”
Cutting off Dongha’s voice, Lee Sanghoe asked.
It was a voice that seemed to be desperately suppressing bursting emotions.
“…Pardon?”
“What is this ahjussi saying… Whether Yugeon hyung comes back or not, what’s it to you, ahjussi!”
As if Dongha’s words were a trigger, Lee Sanghoe’s bloodshot eyes widened for a moment, then he shouted roughly.
“Why on earth did you come back!”
Both fists tightly clenched were trembling, so angry about something.
When Yugeon was flustered, Dongha quickly stood blocking between Yugeon and Lee Sanghoe. But Yugeon pushed Dongha aside and stood before Lee Sanghoe.
“Since my father passed away, isn’t it natural for a child to come as a matter of filial duty?”
Lee Sanghoe sneered as if it was absurd.
“Haha! Lee Jonghak’s life even has a son who takes care of his duties and mourns him, what a filial son he had. Huh? Is the mother what’s important after all?”
“?”
Yugeon unconsciously frowned. He couldn’t understand what he was saying, but it strangely felt bad.
“Then your business must be all finished now?”
“What?”
“Leave. Leave right now. Get the hell off the island!”
Lee Sanghoe, who shouted as if possessed by an evil spirit, immediately rushed at Yugeon and grabbed him by the collar, and the horrified Dongha clung to Lee Sanghoe’s arm.
“What are you doing! Are you crazy?”
“Get out of the way!”
Lee Sanghoe pushed Dongha away and began dragging Yugeon. His strength was tremendous. There was no way Yugeon could match the strength of Lee Sanghoe, who had lived his entire life as a fisherman.
When Yugeon began being dragged by Lee Sanghoe, Dongha, who had been pushed away, rushed at Lee Sanghoe again and began stopping him, and Lee Sanghoe, as if he’d lost his reason, swung his fist at Dongha who was stopping him. When Dongha, hit squarely by that fist, rolled on the ground without even screaming, Yugeon’s face was colored with shock.
“Dongha! Wait…! Let go, Dongha!”
Yugeon struggled, trying to escape from Lee Sanghoe’s hands that held him. He hit Lee Sanghoe’s arms and shoulders, clawed at his hands, and put strength in his legs to resist being dragged. But Lee Sanghoe didn’t even blink.
“Let go!”
Unable to bear it anymore, Yugeon hit Lee Sanghoe’s face. Lee Sanghoe glared at Yugeon with bloodshot eyes, gritted his teeth, then slammed Yugeon to the ground, mounted him, and began choking his neck.
“If only you had died…! If only you had just died properly back then! My Jaeyeong would…!”
